Gift card purchase

This is how I spent the Deseret Book gift card money!

Here is how I spent my Amazon gift card money:

Marie: The Cookie exchange

Marie's gift arrived in my mailbox today.  Here are pictures of the packaging.  The flavors are brown-butter cookie and Christmas cookie and smell good.  It is shampoo, body wash, bubblebath .... whatever you want to use it for.

Thanks to Marie and family!

Books read

Terri gave me this book.  I read it today.  It was ok but it is not one that I would choose to read to my students.  Boys who are interested in hunting might enjoy this book.

Synopsis from amazon.com: Erik is preparing for his first-ever hunting trip when he learns that his parents are being deployed to Iraq.  A few days later, Erik is shipped off to North Dakota to live with Big Darrell and Oma, grandparents he barely knows. When Erik rescues a dog that’s been stuck by a porcupine, Big Darrell says Erik can’t keep him. But Erik has already named her Quill and can’t bear to give her up.  He decides to run away, taking the dog and a shotgun, certain that they can make it on their own out on the prairie.
In this story of adventure and survival, Erik learns about the challenges and satisfactions of living off the land, the power of family secrets, and the pain of losing what you love.

Ann sent me this book and I read it today.  It was a nice story.

Here is the synopsis from amazon:
Gretchen Daniels has recently moved into a condo with her two children to be closer to her mother, Miriam. As they build a life together in their new community, they notice a mysterious young woman, Melissa McCreary, who lives next door. She has few possessions, little personality, and keeps to herself. One day a local landlord who is looking for Melissa knocks on Gretchen’s door for assistance. Melissa’s mother has died and in the coming weeks the landlord needs Melissa to empty her mother’s apartment. Gretchen reaches out and offers to help Melissa, but the apartment is a gut-wrenching shamble of a home. There is little worth saving except for a few photos and a note that is discovered on the crate beside the bed. It is unfinished, but in the two scribbled lines, Melissa discovers secrets about her family that she never could have imagined. Can two very different women embark on a journey that explores a long-buried need for forgiveness, hope, and redemption?

Once Upon a Time

I have heard about the series "Once Upon a Time, " so I just watched all the episodes online.  It is a pretty entertaining show. I think I will keep up on it as it continues.

Here is the synopsis of the series from Wikipedia:
On the wedding day of Snow White and Prince Charming/James, the Evil Queen arrives and delivers an ominous threat about a powerful curse she intends to release upon them.  Some time later, a pregnant Snow White is worried about the curse and visits Rumplestiltskin, who issues a prophecy that the Queen's curse will take them all someplace terrible where there will be no happy endings.

She also reveals that Snow White's unborn daughter, Emma, will return when she is 28 years old to rescue them, thus beginning the final battle with the Queen. On advice from the Blue Fairy, Geppetto and Pinocchio fashion a wardrobe from a magical tree which will allow one person to escape the Queen's curse. Prince Charming intends for Snow White and their unborn daughter to use the magic tree to escape the curse, but Snow White goes into labor and gives birth to Emma just as the wardrobe is about to be completed. On the day Snow White gives birth to their daughter Emma, the Queen's curse strikes. Prince Charming places their daughter in the magic wardrobe, but is grievously wounded battling the Queen's henchmen. The Queen stands triumphantly over Snow White and Prince Charming as the curse takes them to "someplace horrible."
In present day Boston, Emma Swan lives a lonely existence working as a bail bondsman and bounty hunter. On her 28th birthday, Emma is approached by a ten-year-old boy who identifies himself as her son, Henry, whom Emma had given up for adoption as a baby. Not wanting a relationship with him, Emma agrees to drive him back to his home in Storybrooke, Maine. Along the way, Henry shows her a large book of fairy tales, insisting that all of the stories in it are real. When they arrive in Storybrooke, Henry informs her that everyone in town is in reality a fairy tale character, exiled by the curse and with no memory of their real identities. This includes his therapist, Dr. Archie Hopper, who is really Jiminy Cricket, and his teacher Mary Margaret Blanchard, who is really Emma's mother, Snow White. He claims that time is frozen in Storybrooke, and the people are unable to leave, but that the curse will be broken by Emma since she is the daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White. A skeptical Emma returns Henry to his adoptive mother, the town's mayor who is really the Evil Queen. When Henry soon runs away again, Emma finds him and decides to stay in Storybrooke temporarily. This decision causes the hands of the town clock, previously frozen, to begin moving again.

Christmas Day

Here are some views of Christmas morning:

I attended Sacrament meeting which was nice.  Our Primary children sang a couple of songs.

Terri came over with a Christmas gift. We had a nice visit.

I talked with Ann Christmas evening.  It was good to hear that Florence is doing well despite the new sugery. She is NOT to put any weight on the leg at all for at least three months.  It will be a long healing process again.

I plugged in my two candles with the one I already had!

My Gifts

Frank sent me all of these cook books.  He also sent the Anniversary Collection of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD set, and the Easy button!

Jeff and Joan gave me these set of CD's from Michael Wilcox.

 Sally Miles gave me these cute bag with the hot cocoa, some salt water taffy and these hot sox slippers that go in the microwave.

Beth and the girls gave me these soft, comfy slippers and yummy peach scented liquid soap  along with this printer.  Isn't that cool?

 This is the contents of my Christmas stocking.  I can't believe Santa thought I deserved coal!!!!


Mandy called it ... the practical year!
 


 
Earl and John were very generous with their gifting.  You can see the poinsettia bath set, a George Foreman Grill, and some slippers.

 Here are the contents of the basket!

 Hessings and Aunt Florence were so generous. 

I also received a gift certificate from Dimicks to Deseret Book.  I had phone picking out some fun lds fiction books to read.  I also bought the new Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD featuring David Archuleta. I can't wait to receive that package now!

John and Mary Ann sent me a gift certificate to Amazon!  I am still deciding what to spend it on.

Mike and Sara Hessing sent me this yummy scent!

Sharon brought over this beautiful nativity scene.

Connie Fieldstead gave me a plate of her handdipped chocolates, too!